Act of Remembrance

Subject: The act of Remembrance

Another year has flown past and Armistice Day is once again the quietly modulated restrained voice of David Dimbleby  setting the scene as his father Richard did before him. They have become iconic, part of the national furniture, part of the warp and weft of who we like to think of who we are. The soft dulcet tones and the well rehearsed description of who is who in the parade is carried on as it was when I was growing up listening to father Richard describe the funeral parade of King George the VI soon followed by the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. In those days we were much more imbued with a deference for members of the aristocracy and an almost hypnotic interest in who was who and what their titles meant. As the bands swung into action and the somber music made us feel the weight of occasion the Dimbleby voice guided us mere mortals  through the ceremonial and somehow not only brought it alive but made it meaningful.

Living overseas, perhaps amongst people who disliked us for what we represented, we listened to the BBC relaying the scene around the Cenotaph on my beloved Normandy shortwave radio. Somehow the voice of Dimbleby senior made the link home real, we under a cloudless sky they in dank Whitehall were at one.

Today as the band plays and the dignitaries lay their wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph the voice of David Dimbleby takes us through the who's who of the royal family and the leaders of parliament past and present the High Commissioners of lands across the globe reminds us of our past reach around the world who's soldiers fought on our side.

It's a unchanged ceremony except for the representatives who mortal, go on to better things. Somehow having sat by the side of my parents watching the events on a 9" television screen, today many decades later the symbolism reminds us that we are all mortal and that the early calling of these men under arms will be remembered.